Some of the reasons why gay men became priests are obvious and simple; others are not. Becoming a priest, first of all, seemed to solve the problem of not wanting others to know that you were queer. As a priest, you could be celibate, or unmarried, and everyone would understand the reasons. It was because you had a vocation; you had been called by God, had been specially chosen by him. For other boys, the idea of never having sex with a woman was something they could not even entertain. For you, such sex was problematic; thus you had no blueprint for an easy future. The prospect, on the other hand, of making a vow in holiness never to have sex with a woman offered you relief. The idea that you might want to have sex with men, that you might be ‘that way inclined’, as they used to say, was not even mentioned, not once, during that workshop in which everything under the sun was discussed. That you were gay was something you managed to know about yourself and not know at the same time.
—Colm Tóibín in an excellent piece on why the Catholic Church has always been a home to homos, despite the Vatican’s best efforts to convince you otherwise
Fitz
Plus you are in drag and get free wine, and it’s your job to be a judgmental byatch.
PopSnap
The Catholic Church has a ton of problems, and not just how they treat gays. I’d say around 90% of those who were baptized as children in the past 30 years or so don’t even attend church unless it’s on Christmas or Easter. The only mention of God that will ever escape their lips is whenever they pray before important meals or on those two occasions in which they attend Mass.
I was raised in such a family. My mind has never been exposed to more conflicting emotions than what I experienced as a child. First, I was bitter towards the Church for its treatment of gays (which we never heard a whisper of during actual Mass; it was all about loving each other and your family and stuff). That was a major turn-off. However, Catholics themselves weren’t bad people, just misguided.
Secondly, strangely enough, I was always irritated with my family for not going more. I know it sounds weird. But it just got on my nerves, the way we pretended to be something we weren’t just to appease my religious grandmother. Even my grandfather was a staunch liberal atheist. And whenever I brought it up, I would be treated as if I had just admitted to being a member of a Satanic cult that sacrificed children. My brothers went to a Catholic school (I informed them that I’d rather die than go to a religious school, so I stayed in public) where they learned about Jesus and the Bible and my parents always bitched about it. They’d try to find ways around getting them to go to confession once a month as required, or communion once a month, both of which are important Catholic sacraments. They didn’t want it to interfere with sports practice.
I am not even going to get into what is so bad about this. I could write a book on how many levels the way my parents were about religious irritated and annoyed me. On one hand, I’m so lucky I wasn’t born to fundie baptists, sure. On the other, at least fundie Baptists wouldn’t be fake as hell and only pretend to follow their religion, which should be a very important aspect of who you are.
If my parents saw this post, they wouldn’t get it and be confused and say “I thought you were an atheist or something?”
^The above is what 80% of Catholics are like. Hope I illustrated it good enough.
Kevin
@PopSnap: That seems a little harsh. A lot of people really only care about the social aspect of their religion. Your family has a Catholic “identity” but may not really go along with the theology. I think that the social aspect of religion is at least as compelling as any other, and as such I don’t really blame someone for wanting to hold onto that aspect and maintaining as distant a relationship as possible from the theological. Just my $.02
Enron
I believe some priest are actually in the Ministry for genuine reasons. Where I live in the Caribbean, and the ones I have known for years with the way how gossip is prevalent and lips are loose and everybody is in your business, one of them would have been caught already. Unless they are doing it amongst themselves then they are really careful. On the other hand, there are others who are in it as an escape.
B
I once read something similar from a gay therapist who had treated a number of priests – about 1/2 of them (at least, half of his patients) were gay. This was partly the result of Catholicism being the dominant religion in cultures where there was a lot of social pressure to get married – for many, the only acceptable excuse to not get married was to be a priest. So a lot of gay guys from these cultures who didn’t want to marry a women became priests instead.
Historically, young men entered a seminary in their early teens (maybe a bit earlier). So they ended up going through the “raging hormones” period in a very sexually repressive environment, and came out of it rather warped.
It’s apparently less of a problem today as priests in training enter a seminary at a much older age.
RomanHans
The word “welcoming” is entirely wrong in the headline. I think your point is the Catholic Church *attracts* gays. They have never “welcomed” them, and they never will.
Philip Lynch
Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about homosexuality:
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.